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Philosophy General

Career of Toleration

John Locke, Jonas Proast, and After

by (author) Richard Vernon

Publisher
McGill-Queen's University Press
Initial publish date
Mar 1997
Category
General
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780773564169
    Publish Date
    Mar 1997
    List Price
    $95.00

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Description

The Career of Toleration considers the Locke-Proast controversy from the standpoint of political theory, examining Locke's and Proast's texts and tracing their relationship to later discussions of toleration. Vernon reconstructs the grounds of the dispute, drawing attention to the long-term importance of the arguments and evaluating their relative strength. He then examines issues of toleration in later contexts, specifically James Fitzjames Stephen's critique of John Stuart Mill, the perfectionist alternative to contractualist liberalism, and the view that the traditional attachment to toleration must, by the force of its own arguments, move from liberalism to a defence of a much stronger form of democracy.

Arguing that Locke's and Proast's exchange marks a turning point in the intellectual history that has helped to structure the terms of modern political debate, Vernon presents a solid case for thinking that the exchange between Locke and Proast is as important for the twentieth century as it was for the seventeenth.

About the author

Richard Vernon is professor, political science, University of Western Ontario.

Richard Vernon's profile page